Email day

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December 3, 2024

Dear Friends and Family,

   Well it has been another week or so in Sierra Leone Africa.  Time seems to go by so quickly, and just like at home there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done.  

   With this past week being Thanksgiving, we prepared a Thanksgiving meal for our Elders in our area.  We are getting good at making normal american dishes with the food resources that are here.  Most dishes don't have the exact ingredients, but thank goodness for google and good food substitute suggestions. I won't bore you with the listed food items, but I will say Elder Thacker pulled off 6 roasted whole chickens, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.  Not too bad!  And I learned that you can actually make pudding from scratch and that it doesn't have to come out of a box. Either I have been in SL too long, or it truly was the best chocolate dessert ever! HAHA!! Of course the elders are simple creatures that are happy in life if they have food, but I do think they were quite surprised!

   Our mission continues to teach me humility and kindness and that all humankind feels heartache, pain, and loss.  This week Fred and I attended 2 funerals, and while there are some differences in our funerals at home, they are the same in that family, friends, and community come together in sad times to lend support.

   The first one was an older lady that had kidney problems.  She had 11 children, and had outlived all of the children except 1 who's name is Tamba...a Home Group leader in our area.  Just 3 days before she passed, Elder Thacker and I stopped to give a ride to this sweet, sick lady walking the distance to her home with her grandson. Life can be hard in SL. We drove to the village of this lady to attend the celebration of life.  The village is 18 kilometers from the town we live in on dirt roads that are rugged.  In a truck, the distance and road conditions are not bad, but the majority of people walk or pay a motorbike driver to take them places.  As we drove, we picked up men, women, and children all going to pay respects to this family.  The family receives people for 3 days and feeds anyone who comes,  I will add that they all eat out of the same pot with their hands!  They say they like to feel the weight of the food in their hands and the bond in sharing.  My friend Martha, the daughter in law, told me they cooked 5 - 100 lb bags of rice!  That is an incredible amount of rice!  The most incredible part of this is there are no indoor kitchens.  All cooking is done outside on homemade charcoal and open fires. 

   The second funeral was for a member who was 38 years old.  He was a husband and father of 3 children.  He was a school principal and well respected member of the community.  He went into the hospital to find he had pneumonia.  We went to the hospital when he was admitted.  Yet again another trip to the hospital that continues to leave me without descriptive words to describe it.  He was in a "men's ward" so I could not go in.  Looking through the windows it resembled  pictures of the hospital rooms they had in  World War II.  Basically, a large room filled with beds and sick patients.  Anyway, our friend Ailah James passed away one week after being admitted.  It seemed all they could do for him was drain the fluid from his lungs. It was heartbreaking to see his wife just heartbroken holding his hand at the hospital ultimately sensing what was coming.  At the funeral,  there were probably 1000 people who lined the streets and paraded to his burial at his home compound.  Many were his students.  The funeral procession came to a stop momentarily, as the students wanted to carry his casket to the burial sight.  They stopped the old ambulance which was the equivalent to a hearse, and carried the casket the remaining mile.  It was beyond touching.

   Well on a lighter note, the missionaries had baptisms on Saturday.  The number of new members was 19.  This is just an exciting time in SL. I marvel at the faith of these new members.  I spoke with one older gentleman being baptised.  He was so humble as he said," I have waited my whole life to feel this peaceful.  I am a forever changed man.  I will not go back to my old life. I will praise God forever."

  Is serving a mission hard? Yes, Do I miss my children and grandchildren? Yes....but how would I know my true faith without this mission experience.  Thank you for your support and prayers.  We feel them and are sustained by your love.

  Sincerely, Elder and Sister Thacker

Pictures:  Baptisms, some of the funeral procession, picture of an amputee that was in the funeral procession, Elder Thacker helping a bike that tipped over.